Thursday, December 12, 2013

Pacific Rim * * * *

To battle giant alien monsters from another dimension, the human race builds skyscraper tall robots that are human piloted.

There is a certain silliness to the premise of Pacific Rim that giant robots would be needed to fight giant creatures from another world. A single missile would probably kill any one of these monsters, and if that didn’t do the trick, the second or third missile would finish the creature off. A single Apache helicopter or fighter aircraft would have more than enough firepower to destroy one of these creatures.

Pacific Rim also has a certain amount of corniness that reminds me of “An Officer and a Gentleman.” Even the “bad soldier” becomes a hero in the end. The movie is also reminiscent of “Real Steal” and possibly other movies like “Top Gun.”

However, the movie is so well executed and so effectively draws into its world, that I quickly forgot any logical objections that I had to the film. The movie is dominated by special effects and battle scenes, but these are done so well and are so engaging that it kept my on the edge of my seat. The characters are slightly corny, but the movie somehow gets us to completely empathize with them. Throughout the film there is a sense of wonderment that all good science fiction stories have.

Even a slightly silly movie like this one can be done so well that it feels like a perfect movie. I am sure that I will watch it a couple of more times.